Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

How the supporting pieces enhance the meaning of the documentary:

The message of the documentary is finding out why dogs are considered 'man's best friend' and why they deserve this title. Firstly, the advertisements all include an image of the presenter looking happy whilst interacting with a dog. This demonstrates how dogs bring happiness and unconditional love to humans, this area of dogs bringing happiness to people's lives is looked at in detail in segments of the documentary.

Also, in the magazine spread a pull quote is used from a guide dog user which says her "life was completely changed" by her dog. This further enhances the meaning of the documentary that relates to dogs literally transforming someone's life from miserable to great which is shown in interviews throughout the documentary.

Finally, the quotes used in the adverts from The Guardian which state that 'Man's Best Friend' is "a great, fun insight into why we love dogs so much" make it obvious what the documentary is about. These quotes quickly sum up the content of the documentary but leave it open enough that people still want to find out why this is by watching the documentary.

Conclusion

The combination of my main product and ancillary texts is very effective. The consistency, simplicity and style of the advertisements make them appealing to the target audience as well as giving them the relevant information they need to know to watch the documentary. They relate appropriately to the main task because the content of the adverts is synoptic of 'Man's Best Friend'. Secondly, the magazine spread is just as effective but gives an even more detailed look into the documentary through the 'Interview with the Presenter' section which would not have been applicable to the other pieces because of its size. All of this combines to create effective and relevant marketing for the documentary.

Evaluation Question 1

Advertising Campaign

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Bus T Side Advert

Bus Stop Advert

Billboard Advert

Promo / Pre-roll Advert

Advertising Campaign Research and Development

Why a Promo / Pre-Roll Advert?

- A promo advert plays across the BBC channels in between shows and can be shown at times when the target audience is most likely to be watching TV (e.g. after a specific programme that is likely to have the same/similar audience to 'Man's Best Friend'.)

- They are between 20 and 40 seconds long and show a quick montage of what the viewer should expect from the documentary and engage them by using attractive clips.

- The promo can also be shown as a 'pre-roll' advert on sites such as YouTube where the advert plays just before a video. The videos the advert plays before can be selected so it is only shown to a specific audience. For example, showing the advert before 'cute puppy' videos will reach the audience of people looking to watch dogs.

After putting together the first version of the promo advert I realised the voice over was quite loud. This could be uncomfortable for the viewer and put them off the documentary. Therefore, I lowered the volume of the voice over.



For the second edit with the lowered volume I also added the title 'Peter Bamforth' (the presenter's name) so that the audience can identify with him more and possibly research him. I then showed people for feedback, they suggested I slow down the transition that introduced the 'Peter Bamforth' title because it was quite fast and did not fit with the pace of the rest of the advert.



This final version of the promo / pre roll advert is very simple, informative, and engaging, which are three elements that were suggested I make sure to include from my audience research.

Advertising Campaign WordCloud

I asked multiple people for their opinion on what makes a good advertising campaign. I then put the most frequent suggestions into a WordCloud which can be seen below. This helped me to focus on putting suitable elements into my advertising campaign for 'Man's Best Friend'.

Man's Best Friend - Completed Main Task

Magazine Spread

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Magazine Spread Research and Development

 Real products and previous A2 work:

(LEFT)

In class we looked at real magazine spreads as well as spreads done by the previous media studies students. We studied these in detail and annotated them with what was done well so that we knew what to include in our spreads to make them as good as possible. It taught us what worked well and what did not on a double page spread, this would allow us to avoid making the same 'mistakes' when we started designing our own ones.



















Real product:

(RIGHT)

When the hearing dog charity people visited us for the interview they gave us their magazine, 'Favour'. This was helpful because it was very related to our documentary. I used this to look at how to structure a magazine spread as well as what type of content to include. I then applied these skills, such as pull quotes and appropriate images, when designing my own spread.

Initial ideas:

(LEFT)

After researching how to design a magazine spread and learning what elements I should include to make it the best it could be I started drawing out some rough ideas. This helped me to where I should put the titles and main body of text etc. and what worked well in each position. When I had a solid idea of what I wanted my spread to     look like, I started to edit it on the computer using a 'Sony Vegas' editing suite.

Feedback and improvements:

(RIGHT)

After I had completed a first edit of my magazine spread I showed it to people to receive feedback on how it could be improved. I was told that I should include a picture of the presenter to accompany the 'A chat with the presenter' segment. I was also told to reverse the alignment of the text as well as remove the image of the hearing dog charity logo because it looked too much like an advertisement. It was suggested that I replace this with a pull quote. These improvements can be seen on the final piece. 

The Editing Process

Media Screening

From the feedback received it is clear that people really liked our subject choice of dogs because it was interesting and engaging. We also learnt that we had achieved our goal of making the documentary quite happy and 'feel good' as well as informative through the use of appropriate music and interviews. However, it was also said that we could have looked into dogs as pets more. If we were to film the full documentary we would definitely have explored this area in greater depth. The audience also noted that the camera angles and footage used were very appropriate, 'cute', and edited together well to keep the documentary 'slick' and 'very professional'. Another area we could improve on is the speed of the presenter talking. One audience member thought that the presenter was speaking too quickly, however, this may not have been the view of the entire audience who did not mention this as an issue. Finally, it was great to see people either leaving the 'bad' box blank or writing phrases such as "no improvement needed!". 

Changes Made to Edits

The Filming Process

A Brief History of Documentaries

The Lumiere Borthers

Auguste and Louis Lumière are seen as the earliest filmmakers in history, their first film being screened to a private audience in 1895. Because of technological limitations of only having 50ft long film reels the brothers' films consisted of single-shot moments, the first one being of factory workers leaving a factory (seen below). These films were called 'actuality' films because they captured scenes from 'actual' events, the word 'documentary' was not around until 1926.

Early 20th Century

From 1900 - 1920 travelogue films (exploratory and ethnographic films that were used to provide the general public with a means of observing different countries and cultures) became very popular. This is because these films let the general public view something that they would otherwise never be able to experience, such as the film 'In the Land of the Head Hunters' (1914) which provided truthful re-enactments of the livews of Native Americans.

Nanook of the North

Nanook of the North: A Story Of Life and Love In the Actual Arctic) is a 1922 silent 'docudrama' film by Robert J. Flaherty. The film is considered the first feature-length documentary and is the earliest example that shows many similarities to modern documentaries, however, many scenes were staged to make them more dramatic so were not true to nature - hence the term 'docudrama'. The film captures the struggles of the Inuk Nanook and his family in the Canadian Arctic.

Mise-En-Scene

Location Research

Classroom
Finally, due to the fact that the weather was not meant to be good on the day of the hearing dog interview we arranged to film indoors. We gained permission to film in a classroom. This allowed us to control the noise as well as reduce the chance of being disturbed by students. This classroom was well lit and offered plenty of room for the puppy as well as an appropriate area to film the interview.

Magazine Spread Research

Research into a similar product. This will help me when it comes to making decisions on my own spread.